The origin of poverty in Mongolia today: an economic and geographical analysis

Poverty in Mongolia remains a pressing concern, as it not only affects trade relations with neighboring countries but also has implications for stability within the country. Therefore, understanding the reasons for poverty’s resistance to efforts to eradicate it and identifying its underlying causes is crucial. The goal of the study is to identify causes for the persistence of poverty and its geographic distribution. Through this research, three groups of factors were identified that contribute to the persistence of poverty: environmental and climatic, geo-economic, and socio-cultural. For each group of factors, there were obtained results justifying the persistence of poverty. Thus, it has been proven that Mongolia is in a geographical dead end (being far from the Coast of the World Ocean and sandwiched between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China), while the nature climatic features of its territory dictate nomadic lifestyle and specific agricultural practices (pasture husbandry), which in turn explain the distribution of poverty across aimags (regions of Mongolia). Trade cooperation with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China influences Mongolia’s economy and stimulates its development, although it has no direct impact on poverty dynamics. Key economic problems explain the weak correlation between the economic development and poverty, emphasizing socio-cultural factors as the most significant contributors to poverty persistence.